A depressed woman.Aside from food, family units can also be exploited to
provide mechanisms for forestalling depression. PHOTO | FILE| NATION
MEDIA GROUP
Mary Wambui, 28, has been battling depression for the past ten years.
Growing
up as an only child in the 1990s, she recalls having a happy life
surrounded by the warmth of dotting parents who always assured her of
their love and support.
But this perfect childhood came to an abrupt end after a fatal car crash killed her parents.
Mary
learned about this while in school at a time when she was busy
preparing to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE)
examination.
“My whole life came crumbling down. I
cried until there were no tears. And a sense of deep sadness engulfed
me. I felt like dying too.”
Even though life seems
normal now as Mary enjoys a well paying job in a career that she is
passionate about, the deep void left by the ordeal is still etched in
her psyche.
“Life has never been the same. After they
left, I felt abandoned and lonely. I always felt sad and low. I still do
at times. But now I have learned to cope with the situation,” she says.
A
year after their demise, she was diagnosed with clinical depression and
has been managing the condition with medication since then.
Mary represents the thousands of Kenyans suffering from some form of mental illness – whether knowingly or unknowingly.
Government
statistics indicate that one in every four Kenyans suffers from a
mental health disorder at some point in their lifetime.
Ironically, only one out of every 100 cases will be detected and treated.
At
a recent conference dubbed “Traumatic Stress: A threat to Health, Piece
and Development in Africa”, experts noted that mental health challenges
are increasingly on the rise in Kenya though they receive less
attention.
Dr Gladys Mwiti, chair of the Kenya
Psychological Association (KPA), said that traumatic events such as
death of loved ones, loss of employment, sexual abuse or war scars can
cause emotional and physiological problems for many people.
“And
if this source of grief is not identified and addressed in time, it
leads to anxiety which can then escalate to depression,” Dr Mwiti said.
Some
people get over traumatic events by themselves; others benefit from
counselling therapy while some require medication for better outcomes.
Due
to associated costs, appropriate medications to manage various mental
health conditions are often out of reach for most Kenyans.
Also, most people who cannot afford psychologists or other mental health experts usually end up suffering in silence.
It
is due to such challenges that health experts are continuously seeking
to identify various cost effective interventions that can contribute to a
reduction in mental illnesses.
A new study published
in the current BMC Medicine journal offers evidence to prove that diet
can play a key role in increasing or decreasing people’s chances of
succumbing to mental illness.
The study conducted in
Spain found that three types of diet plans already associated with
physical health benefits (Mediterranean, Pro-vegetarian and Alternative
Healthy Eating Index-2010) also offer protection against depression.
These
dietary patterns put more emphasis on the consumption of sea food (like
fish), vegetables (sources of minerals and vitamins), nuts (sources of
omega-3 fatty acids) and fruits.
The large study
titled A longitudinal Analysis of Diet Quality Scores and the Risk of
Incident Depression in the SUN Project found that the association
between healthy foods and good mental health seems to be consistent
across countries, cultures and populations. Also, protection against
depression was greatest among those with moderate adherence than those
with low adherence to the healthy diet plans.
This was the first study that sought to identify the link between common healthy diet plans and mental health.
“We
wanted to understand what role nutrition plays in mental health, as we
believe certain dietary patterns could protect our minds. These diets
are all associated with physical health benefits and now we find that
they could have a positive effect on our mental health,” said Dr
Almudena Sanchez-Villegas, lead author, in a Press statement. She is a
scientist at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain.
Aside from food, family units can also be exploited to provide cost-effective mechanisms for forestalling depression.
LOVE, TRUST AND OPENNESS
Susan
Njoroge, a marriage and family therapist, told the Business Daily that
strong families that have cultivated love, trust or openness often offer
a protective support system for their members.
“This cushions members from succumbing to depression after traumatic experiences,” she said.
“The family can immediately spot and help address causes of abnormal behaviour in any member before the problem escalates.”
She calls on Kenyans to be aware of the symptoms of depression to facilitate timely diagnosis and resolution of mental problems.
Some
of the warning signs include prolonged sadness, hopelessness,
moodiness, tiredness, concentration problems, memory lapses, work
absenteeism, loss of interest in friends or previous favourite
activities, weight gain or loss, thoughts of self harm or suicidal
tendencies and unexplained pains and aches.
Depression
is a real illness that affects the brain. However, many people often use
the word to explain sadness or low moods, which are normal reactions to
life’s struggles, setbacks and disappointments.
But
depression is much more than the sadness. It is defined as a pervasive
and persistent sense of despair that affected people cannot simply will
away no matter how hard they try.
Even though scientists agree that depression is a brain disorder, they are yet to determine its exact cause.
Factors
that contribute to its onset include genetic characteristics, hormonal
changes, medical illnesses, substance abuse, grief and stress.
Each of these factors can cause changes in the brain’s chemistry leading to depression symptoms.
“It’s high time we advocated for effective health policies and budgets to tackle this challenge in Kenya,” said Dr Mwiti.
This article was first published in the Business Daily.
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